Alex66

Hello,
Has anybody installed the Corvette C4 L98 oil-to-coolant oil cooler in Corvette C3, and has Pictures of the Installation (water hose Routing)? My Oil temperature goes up quiete a bit when I put my Foot on it... it is a "high" compression 10.5:1 Static, and (dynamic CR 8.47:1) 383 build and the engine just Needs an oil cooler, the Water temperature stays within Limits... So this seems to me as an easy solution with the oil-to-coolant oil cooler to get the oil temperature about 10 - 15 degrees (´celsius) lower. When i put my Foot on it the oil temperature goes quickly up to 130 degrees Celsius, I rather have it max at 110 - 115 degrees Celsius.... Maybe this would work.

maj75

I would suggest a Air to Oil cooler with a thermostat. Fewer hoses, less points of failure, easier to package. Coolant to Oil coolers are a problem because if they leak internally, you won't know it before you ruin your engine with a oil/coolant cocktail. Not sure a stock C4 cooler has the capacity to handle the higher oil temps of a modified engine.

I added an external air/oil cooler to my C5 track car and have not had any issues with oil temp since. My temp would hit 280-290 degrees towards the end of a 30 minute session. Now they stay at 220 degrees.

You English is far better than my German, but it is "foot" not "food". Food is what you eat, foot is what you kick with

Big2Bird

Millions of cars have fluid coolers in the radiator without failure. I don't even see that as a concern.

69autoXr

I have the KC4 L98 oil cooler on my '69. I don't have any pictures at this time, nor do I have an oil temp gauge to report the temperatures. I can tell you that I had to bend my own tubing for the water pump-to-oil cooler line, as I couldn't find an original line at the time.

69autoXr

took a few pics where i could. the line crosses under the oil pan just like on the c4. do you have the diagram of the c4 installation?




you can just barely see the line under the pan. it has rubber hose surrounding it.

Alex66

Thank you VERY much for taking the Pictures!
No, I dont have the Diagramm of the C4 Installation...

69autoXr

jetmech

I am running a 91 TPI setup in my 79. I first put the TPI on the original engine and immediately noticed higher oil temps. When I bought the 91 motor it came with the stock oil cooler and plumbing. I installed it on the old motor before I pulled it just to see if it would make a difference. It made a huge difference! So when I installed the 91 engine after overhaul I made sure to reinstall it on that motor. The only caveat is it extends the filter lower and if you have headers like I do there is not much of a gap between the collector and filter. I fabricated a heat shield to go between the collector and filter to deflect some of the heat. So after saying all of that I would highly recommend this oil cooler.

Mike

69autoXr

Hey Mike, how much temperature change did you see when you added the cooler?

thx

gkull

Alex, oil volume is a great help. Where I live can exceed 40C in the summer so they would close road racing in early June through early August

I built my 383 with a 8 quart road racing pan and I use the big tall oil filter. It is a 7500 rpm 11.2 c/r motor so I installed a oil temperature gauge. Even on 40 degree C days I was dying in my fire suit, but I never saw the oil temperature exceed 115. Typically it cools off to just under 100

GUSTO14

Alex, is it safe to assume that you are using a synthetic oil?

I only ask, because GM eliminated it on the C4 in '92 when they went to the LT1 engine, factory filled with Mobil 1, as they deemed it unnecessary.

Good luck... GUSTO

Alex66

Wow, That's impressive with just a bigger Oil Pan!!

Alex66

No, I run a High Zink Content classic oil, it is not´full synthetic, but extra high temoerature stable. it is a oil from Germany called "Rowe Vintage mild legiert 20/50) This oil was also recommended to me by the Shop (Total Performance) that build my Motor... i am really impressed what the diffrence the 8quart racing Oil pan made with Gkull high compression Motor... I just run the 1971 stock L48 Oil pan, I did this mainly for the original apperance... I think that was a wrong decission...

jetmech

In the summer here in OK running down the turnpike on a 100 degree day the water temp would be 205 and the oil temp would be 245. After install the oil temp was running 210 to 215. I actually changed the thermostat to 180 from a 160 to get the oil temps up around town.

Jebbysan

One thing to take into consideration is that if you are running long tube headers....you will never be able to run a real oil filter with that setup....
They make a super short filter....but it is ridiculously small....and woul d impede flow.

The above poster with his pics has side exhaust....this would work.

I recommend a good oil to air cooler myself.

Jebby

jetmech

I believe I am using an AC Delco PF 454 filter. Not super short. Definitely not long. What kind of temp drop do you get with your air cooler? Just curious.

Jebbysan

I do not run one on my 406....but I have in the past with half filled 406's.....it will cool the oil about 30-40 degrees.....the type to use is not the finned coil type but the pass though sandwich type.
the PF454 is a very short filter compared to what is supposed to be on a Vette....I am very weary of running any filter that restricts flow....also....the PF454 has a check valve in it which causes further restriction.
This may not be a problem for you.....I just don't like the filter to be cork in the system.

Jebby

jetmech

Ok I will bite. What about the C7? That filter is very small even compared to the PF 454. They also run minimum oil pressure compared to our old motors. I believe this thread started by asking about the L98 oil cooler. For my application it has worked very well. Also the engineers at GM must have felt it to be a worthy system for the L98 short filter and all.

chevymans 77

I really wanted to try one of these on my car back when I was having so much trouble keeping it cool. My radiator was heat saturated and I didn't want to add any more heat load to the radiator so I decided to go with a air-to-oil cooler (very large Fluidyne).

Keep us posted on how it works out if you install it, very interested.

Neal

Jebbysan

I have stated at my own GEN 3 engines pickup truck....and wonder why the filter is so small....but there are a few things going on there....
One...the LS stuff has a gerorotor oil pump....it is much more efficient and stable than the old scroll gears our engines have....the other thing is that the whole oiling system in general is completely different....it is priority main and the pump passage is designed to bypass the filter under high volume....
The GEN 1 does this too at the adapter....but I do not like the oil bypassing the filter. I plug the bypass and run a high flow filter.....
Anyhoo....the L-98 cooler really does work well....but for me....too many potential leak points and complexity.....



Jebby